-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NoteIt!.guide -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____________________________________________________________________ NoteIt! Version 1.4.1 _______ by Ryan J. Bruner April, 1994 ____________________________________________________________________ Welcome to NoteIt!, a Post-It style notepad program for the Commodore Amiga. Requires Workbench 2.0 or greater. 'Why did I write it?' 'What's new? ' 'What does it do? ' 'What is to come? ' 'Who to contact? ' 'Acknowledgements ' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why did I write it? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why did I write it? ___________________ I have always felt that the Amiga needed a Post-ItŠ style notepad. Apparently, due to responses from NoteIt! users, others have also felt it is a need as well. So, needless to say, I wrote one! Admittedly, I haven't needed such a program very often for myself. I originally started this project to teach myself more about programming for Amiga intuition. I've had so much fun with it, plus enough of responses to deem continue improving it. Note: I cannot be responsible for any system crashes caused by this program. :-) I just hope they don't happen! I have tried to thoroughly test this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's new? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's new? ___________ Since version 1.4b, these are changes/additions made to NoteIt!. An asterisk (*) indicates new feature, and others are changes. * The NoteIt! window is now resizeable. * A new 'tooltype' for delete-protecting your notefiles. * Ability to place cursor in text with the click of the mouse. * Copy text to clipboard (page at a time only). - Minimization replaced with true iconify. * A nice icon. :-) - Redid the button bar using BOOPSI gadgets instead of Gadtools. - Rewrote all of the word-wrap routines to be more efficient and smaller, as well as a good portion of the rest of the source. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What does it do? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What does it do? ________________ NoteIt!'s features include multiple page editing, window iconification, auto-save of notes, font-sensitivity, and window resizing and positioning.. Graphical buttons, font-specification through a font requester, auto-iconification of the window, and the ability to paste from the system clipboard are some of the newer features. 'Startup ' System requirements for running NoteIt! 'Tooltypes ' Window position, and public screen 'Using NoteIt!' Menus, gadgets, saving 'Configuration' Handling NoteIt!'s configuration -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Startup -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Startup _______ NoteIt! requires at least Workbench 2.0 to run. NoteIt! can be started by either the CLI, or from the Workbench. Several parameters are supported to configure NoteIt!. These parameters are the same for the CLI as for the Workbench 'Tooltypes'. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tooltypes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tooltypes _________ The following Tooltypes can either be used as a CLI parameter, or as a Tooltype set through NoteIt!'s icon information. The Tooltypes are as follows: PUBSCREEN You can specify which Public screen NoteIt! will open on with this Tooltype. If the Public screen does not exist, then it will default to the Workbench. CONFIGFILE This is the file and pathname of where to save the configuration file. The default path is the directory where NoteIt! was started from. NOTEFILE This is the file and pathname of where to save the note file. The default path is the program directory of NoteIt!. DELPROTECT This switch tells NoteIt! to delete protect the notefile. If you want to avoid accidently erasing your notes, use DELPROTECT. You will not be able to erase the notefile without manually changing the file permissions or removing DELPROTECT from the Tooltypes. The TOP, LEFT, WIDTH, and HEIGHT Tooltypes are no longer supported because the need for them has been replaced with a resizeable window. *** Important to version 1.3a users*** Previously the default notefile path was found in ENVARC:noteit.notes. This is no longer the case. The current default location for the notes is now PROGDIR:noteit.notes. If you require to read the old notefile, either set the NOTEFILE Tooltype, or else copy the notefile from the ENVARC: directory to the directory containing NoteIt!. Example of use: To open NoteIt! using a notefile found in "Work:Docs/notefile" from the CLI, you would enter: NoteIt! NOTEFILE="Work:Docs/notefile" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using NoteIt! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using NoteIt! _____________ Once NoteIt! is open, you can simply start typing text. NoteIt! automatically word-wraps text, so there is no need to use the return key for each paragraph. Because of this, NoteIt! also knows when you start a new paragraph with the return key so that if you change the size of the window, the text will not wrap awkwardly. NoteIt! supports multiple pages in the window, allowing you to leave yourself several messages with only one NoteIt! program running. Therefore, NoteIt! will only allow you to run one at a time. This is necessary since having more than one running could erase the notes in the notefile with the notes of another. See below for more on the notefiles. The multiple pages can be controlled either by the window gadgets, or through the menus. 'Menus ' Description of NoteIt!'s menus. 'Gadgets ' Description of NoteIt!'s gadgets. 'Saving ' How to save your notes. 'Keyboard' Special keyboard functions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Menus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Menus _____ NoteIt! has the following menus: 'Project menu ' About, Iconify, Quit 'Edit menu ' Paste 'Navigation menu' Add Page, Delete Page, etc. 'Settings menu ' Font, Autoiconify, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project menu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project menu ____________ About NoteIt!... I'm sure you can figure out what it does! :-) Iconify Shortcut: Amiga-I Choosing this item will iconify the window onto the Workbench. All functions are disabled. Double-click on the NoteIt! icon to re-open the window.. Quit Shortcut: Amiga-Q This will quit out of NoteIt!, saving any remaining notes. (see section about saving notes below). Using the Close gadget will perform the same function. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit menu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit menu _________ Copy Shortcut: Amiga-C This copies the current page of text to the system clipboard. Paste Shortcut: Amiga-V This will paste any text that is in the system clipboard to the current page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Navigation menu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Navigation menu _______________ Add Page Shortcut: Amiga-A Choosing "add page" will create a new empty page to type into. Delete Page Shortcut: Amiga-D Choosing "delete page" will delete the current page, and advance to the next page. If the current page is the only page, then a requester will say you can't delete that page. Next Page Shortcut: Amiga-N Choosing "next page" will advance to the next page, if one exists. Prev Page Shortcut: Amiga-P Choosing "prev page" will move back to the previous page, if one exists. See also 'Gadgets'. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Settings menu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Settings menu _____________ Font... Shortcut: Amiga-F Opens a font requester which allows you to select any non-proportional font. The font requester also allows you to choose a font color, as well as background color. The background color is the color of the page. Default font is Topaz 8. Autoiconify? Shortcut: Amiga-Z When set, this will cause the NoteIt! window to automatically iconify when the window is not selected. If you want to re-open the NoteIt! window, double-click on the NoteIt! icon. Default is off. Start iconified? Shortcut: Amiga-S If this item is selected, then the next time you start up NoteIt!, it will automatically iconify to the workbench. You must save the settings for this item to take affect for the next time you start NoteIt!. Default is off. Button Bar? Shortcut: Amiga-B When this item is selected, the navigation buttons will appear in the NoteIt! window. If it is not selected, then no buttons will appear. See 'Gadgets'. Default is on. Save settings Saves the position, font, and page color settings into the configuration file. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gadgets -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gadgets _______ There are four gadgets in the NoteIt! window, provided that you have the button bar turned on. Add Page is represented by a graphic of a page. Delete Page has a crossed-out page. Previous Page is an arrow pointing to the left. Next Page is represented by an arrow pointing to the right. Each of the page functions match the respective menu items under the 'Navigation menu'. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saving -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saving ______ NoteIt! also will save your notes between power cycles. All notes will be stored in a file, found either in the program directory where NoteIt! is located, or the file specified by the NOTEFILE 'Tooltype'. Every time NoteIt! is started, if a notefile exists, it will read the file and display the first one in the window. Use Next Page, or Previous Page to view any other notes. See 'Navigation menu'. NoteIt! also saves the notes after approximately 10 seconds of inactivity, or if the NoteIt! window becomes inactive by selecting another window or iconifying. Leaving NoteIt! running until shutting power off will not lose messages unless you shut off the power prior to the 10 second time period. Once you close the NoteIt! window, either through the close gadget, or through the menu item "Quit", it will save any messages. See 'Configuration' for information on how to save your configuration for NoteIt!. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keyboard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keyboard functions __________________ The NoteIt! editing uses several common keyboard shortcuts. You may use the arrow to position the cursor as you would expect. By holding down the shift key in addition to the arrow keys causes the extreme cursor position to occur. For example, pressing shift-down will cause the cursor to jump to the last line on the page. Also, the backspace and delete key have shift-key functions. Shift plus delete deletes the entire line from the cursor position to the end of the line. Shift plus backspace deletes the entire line for the cursor position to the beginning of the line. The Tab key inserts spaces, and doesn't not retain an actual tab character. NoteIt! uses tab stops at every 4 spaces. If the 4 spaces cause the cursor to wrap, it will wrap and continue to add spaces, which may look awkward. I didn't accommodate this because I figure very few people need to place tabs in the middle of a paragraph or sentence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Configuration -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Configuration _____________ Configuring NoteIt! can occur through the use of Tooltypes and the Settings menu. Options for fonts, autoiconifying, starting NoteIt! in iconified form, and having the button bar all are set using the menus. Size and position of window are set by simply resizing the window and dragging the window do the desired position. Public screen, and the filenames for the configuration and notefiles are all set using 'Tooltypes'. Once these configuration items are set, they can be saved using the "Save Settings" item from the 'Settings menu'. Note that the Tooltypes will override anything you have saved in the configuration file. The size and position of the window will be saved when you save settings. Simply position the window anywhere on the screen prior to saving the settings will then cause that position to be saved. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is to come? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is to come? ________________ I do plan to continue working on NoteIt! at least until this summer. While I have a list of features I would like to add, I do not guarantee that any of them will appear. My current plans for future versions include: o The ability to scroll the text in a window without using the keyboard. o More keyboard shortcuts, such as next word, etc. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated, though are to be added at my discretion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who to contact? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who to contact? _______________ I can be contacted through electronic mail at the following address: rbruner@engin.umich.edu or through snail mail at: Ryan J. Bruner 3075 Whisperwood Dr. Apt. 448 Ann Arbor, MI 48105 USA Phone: (313) 741-9238 Please note that this program is placed in the Public Domain. If you really want to, you can send me money. :-) However, I will not provide "support" for this software if you do. But, don't let that stop you from sending me say an 8 meg SIMM, or A4000 if you really find NoteIt! saves your life. :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgements ________________ Thanks, especially, to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! If you don't know Jesus Christ personally, and you would like to, please let me know! I would like to thank Christopher Wolf, a.k.a. cwolf on the IRC (chris@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu), for the parameter parsing functions so I could support Tooltypes. Cwolf is also a beta-tester. Thanks to my beta testers, av, Xed, Dense, JanusMan, Timmer, colins, Tau, and DrDemento, all from the IRC. Also thanks to my best friend, Brian Kuhn, who also is a beta-tester. I'd like to especially thank Timmer for his many suggestions, discussions, and assistance in NoteIt!'s development. And so he doesn't complain, thanks to danimal (although RedWine is the true hero) for finding a bug with the menus. :-) I would like to thank all the guys on #amiga for all the assistance they have provided while programming this.